Centennial Park - Rotary's Gift to the Community

What Is Jonesboro Rotary Centennial Park?

Jonesboro Rotary Centennial Park is a playground designed to enable children of all abilities to learn, explore and play together. The park is 70% universally accessible and will be challenging for all children. The park includes a wheelchair track, basketball facilities, picnic areas and fishing piers.  A water splash park is currently under construction.

Why Build Centennial Park?

To celebrate Rotary International’s 100 years of community service in 2005, the Rotary Club of Jonesboro , the Rotary Club of Jonesboro-Metro and the Rotary Club of Jonesboro-University are partnering with the City of Jonesboro, Craighead County and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to construct an accessible playground at Craighead Forest Park. The playground is the first for Northeast Arkansas and offers children of all ages and all abilities an opportunity to participate in activities geared to their special needs. A steering committee worked with educators, playground designers and architects to design and build a playground that provides a much needed recreational area for the families of Northeast Arkansas. The design and fundraising stage of the Centennial Park began in 2003, with construction in 2004, and the dedication and opening of the Jonesboro Rotary Centennial Park in 2005, commemorating Rotary’s 100th Birthday. The three Rotary Clubs in Jonesboro agree that they wanted to mark Rotary's centennial birthday with a project that exemplifed Rotary’s motto of Service Above Self, meet a community need, and provide a permanent gift to the area.

When the steering committee learned that there was not a fully integrated playground in Northeast Arkansas, the idea of Jonesboro Rotary Centennial Park was born.

Where will the park be located?

Jonesboro Rotary Centennial Park is located in Craighead Forest Park in Jonesboro.  Rotary Way is the new name of the road previously named Access Road 5.  This location places Jonesboro Rotary Centennial Park close to the new Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's Crowley Ridge Nature Center.

How will the park be funded?

Funding for the project was provided by the three Rotary Clubs in Jonesboro, in-kind and monetary donations from businesses and individuals in the area. Different levels and methods of funding are available to anyone interested in participating by making a donation, providing in-kind services, purchasing a piece of equipment (naming opportunities), or by contributing to a specific area of the park.  Future donations will be used to enhance, enlarge and improve the park.

Please join us.

To contribute to this exciting and needed park, please contact one of the following local Rotarians:

 

Co-Chair	e-mail	phone
Dennis Zolper	dzolper @ belzburrow.com	870-932-1400
Marilyn Hummelstein	mmh1 @ swbell.net	870-972-4296